Tuesday, June 13, 2017

The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is
likely to step into a legal minefield today when he answers questions
under oath before the Senate intelligence committee about his contacts with
Russian officials and his role in the firing of the FBI director, James Comey, reports The Guardian.

What Sessions tells the committee could in turn affect the
legal jeopardy of Donald Trump, who has also
said he is willing to speak about his interactions with Comey under
oath, although he did not indicate in what forum.

The attorney general - who failed to inform the Senate about
his meetings with Russian officials in his confirmation hearings - will face
particularly tough questioning from the senators over his apparent role in
Comey’s dismissal.

One White House version of events said that Trump fired the
FBI director on 9 May after concerns over his performance were raised by
Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. But Sessions had previously recused
himself from matters connected to the Russia investigation, and Comey was
overseeing that investigation.

Furthermore, Trump said in a television interview and in an
Oval Office conversation with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador the
day after Comey’s dismissal that the decision to fire him was linked to that
investigation.

“Recommending Director Comey’s firing would seem to be a
violation of his recusal, and Attorney General Sessions needs to answer for
that,” the Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement after
Sessions’ Senate appearance was confirmed on Monday.

Sessions will be appearing before the intelligence committee
five days after Comey’s testimony raised new questions about the attorney
general’s role. After Comey’s appearance
on Thursday, the justice department put out a
statement contradicting the ousted FBI director’s account of an appeal he made
to Sessions to make sure he was not left alone with the Trump, who Comey
believed was pressuring him to curb the scope of the investigation of contacts
between the Trump campaign and Kremlin representatives.

Comey
said Sessions did not respond to that appeal. The justice department
described the conversation very differently. “Mr Comey said, following a
morning threat briefing, that he wanted to ensure he and his FBI staff were
following proper communications protocol with the White House,” the statement
said.

It insisted that the “attorney general was not silent; he
responded to this comment by saying that the FBI and department of justice
needed to be careful about following appropriate policies regarding contacts
with the White House."

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.